Big cats in Japan?
There are no big cats native to Japan. There are two small species of wildcats that live on remote Japanese islands, the Iriomote Cat and the Tshushima Cat, both related to and descended from the mainland Asian Leopard Cat (Felis bengalensis).
Both of these small cats, which are about the same size as a house cat, are seriously endangered and threatened with extinction.
Although there are no remaining big cats on the island of Japan, tiger fossils have been found there.
These fossils were most probably a sub-species that were smaller than normal tigers. It is unclear why this sub-species became extinct, as tigers are no longer native to the islands of Japan.
There are no big cats native to Japan. There are two small species of wildcats that live on remote Japanese islands, the Iriomote Cat and the Tshushima Cat, both related to and descended from the mainland Asian Leopard Cat (Felis bengalensis).
Both of these small cats, which are about the same size as a house cat, are seriously endangered and threatened with extinction.
Although there are no remaining big cats on the island of Japan, tiger fossils have been found there.
These fossils were most probably a sub-species that were smaller than normal tigers. It is unclear why this sub-species became extinct, as tigers are no longer native to the islands of Japan.
- The tiger is the largest of all the big cats, even larger than a lion!
- The tiger is also the third-largest land carnivore on the entire planet.
- Tigers used to live all across Asia - including in Japan (hundreds if not thousands of years ago) but during the last hundred years, they have lost 93% of their historic range.
